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Snail defends itself with light

BioPhotonicsFeb 2011
SAN DIEGO – The clusterwink snail has been found to use
its shell to scatter its bright-green bioluminescence in all directions, possibly
as a means of making itself look bigger to ward off predators.

Researchers at Scripps Institution of Oceanography conducted experiments
on the snails, also known as Hinea brasiliana, and documented how they started to
glow when confronted by a threatening animal, such as a crab or a shrimp. The scientists
noted that the sudden production of light by the snails was like a burglar alarm
going off. They also pointed out that bottom-dwelling snails rarely produce bioluminescence
and that it was impressive that their shells so efficiently maximize the light signals.

Even more impressive is that they can do so with shells of an
opacity that would seem designed to stifle light transmission, not promote it. But
when the snails’ bodies produce their green bioluminescence, the shell efficiently
disperses only that particular wavelength.

The researchers hope to apply their findings to the optics and
bioengineering R&D industries. The next step is to determine how the shells
function the way they do and how that knowledge can be used to build materials with
improved optical performance.

The work was described in the Dec. 15, 2010, online version of
Proceedings of the Royal Society B (Biological Sciences).